Shortchanging Our Schools

At Churchill High School, potters’ wheels sit unused inside a dark room. At a number of schools in town, stages are dark because reduced funds have shuttered performing arts programs. And at most of Eugene’s elementary schools, students get music instruction for just a quarter of the year.

In the 1980s, Eugene elementary school students got physical education (PE) four to five days a week year-round. Today, after years of budget cuts, most elementary schools have a PE teacher on-site just nine weeks a year, with some students getting PE just once a week. Last year, nine elementary schools had no PE teacher.

Eugene public schools have been hit hard by budget cuts. Since the 2008 financial crisis, 4J has made more than $32 million in budget cuts and spent nearly $37 million in reserves. It’s difficult to conceptualize what such continuous loss in school budgets means. To supplement the anecdotal evidence, EW is publishing this column to draw attention to the cuts, compare current conditions to that of past school years, and highlight programs that attempt to fill some gaps.

Natalie Pellitier has 62 students in her advanced calculus class. When the year started at South Eugene High School, she and her fellow students made a point to arrive very early for the class: “It was basically a war for seats on the day we got to pick.”

Eugene public schools have been hit hard by budget cuts. Since the 2008 financial crisis, District 4J has made more than $32 million in budget cuts and spent nearly $37 million in reserves. It’s difficult to conceptualize what such continuous loss in school budgets means. To supplement the anecdotal evidence, EW is publishing this column to draw attention to the cuts, compare current conditions to that of past school years and highlight programs that attempt to fill some gaps.

Eugene public schools have been hit hard by budget cuts. Since the 2008 financial crisis began, as state funds and other revenues have shrunk, 4J has made more than $32 million in budget cuts and spent nearly $37 million in reserves. Students from kindergarten through high school have felt the results, but for many, it’s difficult to conceptualize what such continuous loss in school budgets means.